Reference Themes: Skeleton, Dawn and Horizon

Two different themes live under the name Skeleton at the time of checking, and shopify theme init can hand you either depending on how it is called.

The Theme Store requirements published on 2026-10-27 still require JSON templates ("sections everywhere"), a Custom Liquid section and section groups for the header and footer. A theme built on the release candidate therefore cannot satisfy them as written, and the requirements page does not mention the release candidate. Until Shopify updates the requirements, a Theme Store submission starts from v1.0.0, while a private or client theme that wants to try the Liquid-first model can start from main.

The behaviour of shopify theme init is described by the CLI itself: with no flag it clones the Git URL given by -u/--clone-url (default https://github.com/Shopify/skeleton-theme.git), and -l/--latest downloads the latest release of that URL. In the verification run the default produced the v1.0.0 layout (39 files). The CLI looks the releases up through the GitHub API, which anonymous callers can exhaust at 60 requests per hour; a plain git clone --branch v1.0.0 gives the same files without the API call.

Source: Shopify changelog: Skeleton theme is now available; Shopify changelog: Liquid templates can now compose pages with blocks and partials; Skeleton v1.0.0 release

The folders follow the standard theme layout and nothing else:

Source: Skeleton v1.0.0 file tree

The whole layout file fits on one screen, which is the point of the theme:

Source: Skeleton v1.0.0 layout/theme.liquid

The points worth noticing are the ones the Theme Store checks. The lang attribute comes from request.locale.iso_code, the header and footer are rendered as section groups, content_for_header is output untouched, and the SEO tags live in a snippet.

What v1.0.0 teaches through its code:

The product page shows how much is left to the theme author. sections/product.liquid renders images, title, price, description and a variant select with a quantity field and payment_button, accepts no blocks, and has no recommendations, swatches, pickup availability or media gallery. That is deliberate and it is also the list of work between Skeleton and a theme that passes review.

Source: Skeleton v1.0.0 README; Skeleton CONTRIBUTING.md

The following commands were run with Shopify CLI 5.0.0 (telemetry disabled with SHOPIFY_CLI_NO_ANALYTICS=1, no store connected). They clone the tagged theme and check it:

The result, with the box-drawing frame of the CLI removed:

Source: Shopify CLI: theme check

The recommended Theme Check preset is selected by the one line of .theme-check.yml that Skeleton ships (extends: theme-check:recommended). shopify theme check -C theme-check:all selects the stricter preset and also reported no offenses on the Skeleton files.

Pocket Coffee wants the roast date metafield on the product page. In a Skeleton-based theme that is a theme block that the product section accepts. The block below reads a custom.roast_date product metafield of type date; a product page shows nothing when the metafield is empty. The header comment is a LiquidDoc block, and the preset is what lets the merchant add the block in the theme editor.

Source: Shopify: theme blocks

Save it as blocks/roast-date-badge.liquid. Two small edits make the product section accept it. In sections/product.liquid add the output tag inside the product-info element and the block types to the schema:

and in templates/product.json place an instance of the block in the main section, which is what the theme editor writes when a merchant adds it:

(The shipped product.json also begins with a comment header warning that the editor may rewrite the file; Theme Check accepts it.) After these edits shopify theme check reported 40 files inspected with no offenses found, the same under theme-check:all, and shopify theme package wrote Skeleton-0.1.0.zip locally without logging in. Seeing the badge on a real product page needs a development store and shopify theme dev, which were not run.

Source: Shopify: theme blocks; Shopify: Theme Check

Dawn has 48 files in sections, 39 in snippets, 13 in templates (all JSON except gift_card.liquid) and no blocks folder, because it predates theme blocks. A section defines its own block types in its schema. The main product section lists them:

Source: Shopify/dawn on GitHub

That list is how Dawn meets the Theme Store rule that product elements are blocks and that the main product section accepts app blocks; the requirements page names Dawn’s main-product.liquid as its example. The other sections follow the same shape: main-* sections render the content of one template (main-collection-product-grid, main-cart-items, main-search), while marketing sections such as image-banner, featured-collection, multicolumn, slideshow and video are placed freely by the merchant. A custom-liquid section and an apps section are included, and the header and footer are section groups (header-group.json, footer-group.json).

JavaScript is split into 36 files in assets (product-form.js, cart-drawer.js, facets.js, predictive-search.js, pickup-availability.js and so on) written as custom elements and loaded where needed, and CSS is split into 65 component and section files that are loaded by the sections that use them.

Counting the files that touch each feature in the four cloned trees (a search for the Liquid object, tag or file name over the Liquid, JSON, JavaScript and CSS files) gives a measure of how much a start from Skeleton leaves to write:

A non-zero count shows that the feature is implemented somewhere, not that every Theme Store checkpoint about it is met, and a zero shows that the term does not occur. The Skeleton columns are the reason Skeleton is described as a foundation and not as a theme: every cell that is zero is a Theme Store requirement (see below) that the submitter must build.

Source: Shopify/dawn; Dawn main-product section

Dawn 16.0.0 removed the legacy customer account templates and sections. Its release notes say that stores still on legacy customer accounts must upgrade to new customer accounts before publishing this version, and that the header account icon now opens Shopify’s customer account popover instead of a separate login page. Existing stores are therefore affected by the version of Dawn they run: a store customised on an older Dawn keeps the customers/* templates until the merchant updates.

The README recommends adding the Dawn repository as an upstream remote to pull its changes into a fork:

These are the commands of the README and were not run against a fork. Because main may contain unreleased features ("the stable version of Dawn is available in the theme store"), pulling blindly merges work in progress; tags such as v16.0.0 mark releases. Dawn’s .theme-check.yml disables two checks (MatchingTranslations and TemplateLength), and its CI workflow runs Theme Check through the shopify/theme-check-action and the performance audits of Shopify/lighthouse-ci-action.

The README of Dawn still says that a Theme Store submission may use Dawn as a starting point if it is "substantively different". That sentence is out of date; the current requirements, quoted below, declare Dawn-derived submissions ineligible.

Source: Dawn README; Dawn release notes

Horizon’s README is explicit on the two things that matter for the choice. It recommends Skeleton as the starting point of a theme development project, and it states that themes based on, derived from or incorporating Horizon are not eligible for the Theme Store. It also warns that main may include Liquid API properties that are not yet publicly documented.

A merchant who only wants Horizon’s look does not need the repository: the theme can be customised in the theme editor and, when code is needed, a copy edited. A developer who forks the repository keeps it current with the same upstream-remote procedure as for Dawn. Because Horizon has no release tags, record the commit you fork from and read release-notes.md (it names the version at the top) before merging later changes. Theme Check run with the recommended preset on Horizon 4.3.0 gave 6 warnings of two kinds: one ExcessiveSettingsCount on a section and five UnusedDocParam on LiquidDoc comments.

Source: Shopify/horizon; Shopify: AI-generated theme blocks

All themes must support the following, each documented by a shopify.dev guide that the requirements page links:

The theme must provide theme.liquid (layout), the templates 404.json, article.json, blog.json, cart.json, collection.json, index.json, list-collections.json, page.json, page.contact.json, password.json, product.json, search.json and gift_card.liquid, and the config files settings_data.json and settings_schema.json. All templates must support sections as JSON templates, except customer account pages, gift card pages and checkout. Further rules:

Themes must have a minimum average Lighthouse performance score of 60 and a minimum average accessibility score of 90 across the home, collection and product pages for both desktop and mobile, tested against a benchmark dataset with real images and content in the sections. A page-by-page checklist follows: for example the layout must set lang from request.locale, use the routes object for URLs, output payment icons from shop.enabled_payment_types in full colour and must not modify or parse content_for_header; the product page needs title, prices, unit price, compare-at price, description, option names and values, quantity, an Add to cart button, price updates for the selected variant, and cart.taxes_included handling; the cart page needs the line item fields, quantity change, total, a checkout button, cart notes, selling plans and automatic discounts; gift card pages need Apple Wallet support, a code, a QR code of at least 120 x 120px and a logo or shop name; a password page needs the logo or shop.name, shop.password_message and the password form.

Settings need merchant-friendly names, grouping and default content that explains the setting (no Lorem Ipsum). The text rules are exact: sentence case for section, preset and category names; American English; no ampersands; declarative labels; buttons start with a verb; and a terminology table that prescribes words (for example "home page", "slideshow", "signup", "navigation", "cart type" with drawer, page or modal options instead of "Ajax cart"). A favicon setting is mandatory, and logo upload must work with different aspect ratios. Font pickers must use font_picker, load a default font (for example work_sans_n6) and use only currently available fonts. The colour system needs at least four colours, and every background colour setting needs a matching foreground colour setting (Skeleton v1.0.0 defines only two colour settings, a background and a foreground colour). Theme and preset names must be distinct from Shopify products and brands and from the submitter’s company name.

A theme with several presets includes a /listings folder in the zip, with templates (and optionally sections) per preset; with one preset it is not needed:

Source: Shopify: Theme Store requirements

Every submission and update needs a version number and release notes. The requirement to include /listings folders came into force with the updated requirements of 2025-05-15, which also added industry tags (at most two per preset, from 20 categories) and a catalogue-size tag per preset; installing a specific preset became possible for approved /listings folders on 2025-05-26. Each preset needs at least one demo store, built as a client transfer store in the Dev Dashboard (a development store cannot be transferred), with the Bogus Gateway or Shopify Payments test mode enabled, authentic content, no apps except possibly free review and translation apps, and the right to use every asset. Documentation and a public support contact form must be ready before launch and linked from the listing; the partner must fix bugs and answer merchants' questions for the theme.

Source: Shopify changelog: updated Theme Store requirements, 2025-05-15; Shopify changelog: preset-level installation; Shopify changelog: the shopify-account component requirement

Part of the list can be checked automatically and offline. Theme Check covers Liquid correctness, performance hints (for example images without width and height), deprecated tags and translation coverage, and its recommended preset gives errors for the mistakes that fail review. A deliberately broken snippet added to Skeleton (an unused variable, an img with no size, an include tag, a render of a missing snippet and an unknown filter) produced 5 errors (ImgWidthAndHeight, MissingAsset, MissingTemplate twice, UnknownFilter) and 3 warnings (DeprecatedTag, OrphanedSnippet, UnusedAssign), so a clean run is a necessary but not sufficient condition. The default failure level of shopify theme check is error; --fail-level lowers it for CI, -o json prints {valid, issues, errorCount}, --auto-correct fixes what can be fixed and --init writes a .theme-check.yml. Everything else (the Lighthouse averages on Shopify’s benchmark dataset, the browser matrix, the design checkpoints, and the human review) happens in the submission process and cannot be reproduced locally; Shopify documents how to run the same Lighthouse tests against a benchmark shop.

Source: Shopify: testing for performance; Shopify: submit your theme